Superstitious
by Jeva
Summary: MK OneShot. A day in the life of one, Kuroba Kaito. Classmates, kittens, superstitions, and inane conversation about a fictional thief? Yep, just a normal day. -Warning: spoilers for the Arsène Lupin book The Hollow Needle.-


**Superstitious**

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"Ah! What a cute cat!" Nakamori Aoko reached out a hand to pet the small kitten's head while laughing as she said, "It's so little...was it lost? Ne, Keiko-chan?"

The bespectacled girl shook her head sadly. "I found it along with its mother and siblings...but it was the only one who..."

"How sad!" the other girl responded sadly. "Poor thing...it's got no one to take care of it--"

"It's a black cat, Aoko-chan," Koizumi Akako spoke up as she approached the two from behind to stroke the kitten's fur. "Not very many people appreciate animals that are black and say that they are cursed. If the rest of the litter weren't black, it's even more of a bad omen."

Keiko and Aoko gasped. "That can't be true!" they chorused.

"Idiots..."

The three girls turned to see Kaito lazily reading a newspaper at his desk. "Of course it's not true," he muttered, shifting a bit in his seat to prop his head up with a hand. "For one, it's not completely black. It's got a white mark on its chest."

The witch smirked while the other two girls blinked before studying the kitten. "Oh, he's right," Keiko said in surprise. "It's like a small feather fell on it."

"For another thing," Kaito continued boredly, "black cats aren't bad luck--it's a superstition that started in Europe during that Plague known as the Black Death." He finally looked up from his paper just as Hakuba Saguru entered the room. "Na, Hakuba. Educate them on superstitions. Hearing things like that hurts my hears."

"Oh?" the half-British detective said with some surprise when he saw what the girls were huddled around. "You found a black cat?"

Keiko held it out for the boy to see. "Well, like Kuroba-kun said, it's not completely black...but Akako-chan says it's still a bad omen because the mother and the rest of the litter was dead when I found it--"

"Well, Kuroba's also correct that it's just superstition," Saguru said kindly, reaching out to pet the kitten. "While it is sad that its family died, it's a normal part of life. Sometimes stray cats get pregnant but don't have enough food to produce the proper amount of milk the kittens drink when they're born."

"How sad..." Aoko said, appearing somewhat wilted.

The blond gave her a reassuring smile. "Well, this one is still alive but is probably in need of serious care and nursing. Despite the superstition, I'd say this cat is fairly lucky."

Keiko looked at the kitten sadly. "I don't think pets are allowed at home...and as it is, I already tend to kill my fish..."

"My dad wouldn't want a cat," Aoko said with some disappointment. "He'd probably say it's always underfoot and costs too much to take care of. What about you, Akako-chan?"

The witch smiled. "Well, I do have need of a familiar--"

"No way," Kaito interrupted as he stood up and stretched. "If you ever get a cat, you'd probably make them into a monster or something."

"Kaito!" Aoko shouted loudly, making the magician instinctively duck his head. "You shouldn't say such rude things to Akako-chan like that--!"

"I wouldn't if it weren't true--!"

Keiko turned to Saguru, ignoring the argument that was beginning to break out. "Ne, Hakuba-kun. Could you take care of it?"

The detective held up his hands, apologetically. "Ah...sorry, but my father is allergic."

The girl sighed disappointedly. "I knew it...no one's going to take the cat in because it's a bad omen--"

"It is not!" Kaito cried out, catching everyone's attention. "A cat is a cat! Just like a human is a human--!"

"And a fish is a fish?" Aoko put in with a sadistic grin as Kaito spluttered and stammered for a moment.

"A-anyway, there's nothing wrong with the cat! You guys are just letting superstition get to you--"

"And here I thought," Saguru interrupted with a smirk, "that I'd never hear a magician say they aren't superstitious."

Kaito eyed him disdainfully. "Oi, oi...my father was never superstitious, and I see no reason why I should be." He then stood straight, lifting a finger into the air. "For a magician, the most important things are one, knowing your audience and two, your own appearance. It says nothing on the matter of other-wordly forces corrupting our own nature because we committed a certain act or said a certain thing--"

"So if I said 'good luck' instead of 'break a leg,' would you still go on-stage?"

"Ara..." Kaito sweatdropped, putting a hand behind his head and smiling awkwardly. "But that's more of a tradition than a superstition, so..."

"What are you going on about?" Aoko asked with some annoyance. "Tradition and superstition are the same thing! Anyway, you always do certain 'traditions' whenever you perform--"

"But magic and life in general is different!" he objected with a bit of a whine. "I'm not at all superstitious when I'm not performing a trick!"

"Why not test your luck then, Kuroba Kaito?" Akako said before taking the kitten from Keiko. "If you're so certain about your own luck, then why not take a chance with a creature of taboo?"

"Taboo? Pfft!" The magician pointed at the kitten's chest. "It's not all black! So it's not taboo--"

"Didn't you know?" the witch interrupted with a smile. "Black cats with only one small mark of pure white are the worst luck. Especially if they're like this orphaned one."

Kaito blinked at her before frowning. "I've never heard of anything like that..."

"So what's the worry?"

"I'm not worried," the teenaged boy stated firmly before taking the kitten from her. "_Fine_, I'll take in the cat...as long as it doesn't hurt my doves, that is. If it does, it's going straight to an animal shelter."

Keiko clapped her hands together. "This is great! Now the kitten has a home!"

"But now it needs a name," Aoko said thoughtfully.

"I'd think that's simple enough," Hakuba commented with a smirk. "The white feather-like mark on its chest...matches Kuroba's black feather perfectly."

Kaito sweatdropped. "Oi, oi. It's my cat and I'll name it what I want."

"So name it already!" Aoko said impatiently.

"Well, I need to see if it's a boy or a girl first!" Kaito shouted back before turning the kitten onto it's back. He paused for a moment, just staring at it. "...it's so _little_ it fits in one hand."

"It's still just a baby, Kuroba-kun," Keiko told him, "so you'll have to feed it milk for a while because it can't eat actual food yet."

"Yeah, I get it..." he murmured, still studying the small thing lying on his left palm in a more than comfortable manner. "Ara? Female?"

Keiko and Aoko beamed. "Really?"

"Ah..." Kaito stated smartly prompting the British-raised boy to look over his classmate's shoulder. "It certainly appears so," he confirmed before putting a hand on the magician's shoulder. "Congratulations, Kuroba."

Kaito sweatdropped. "Oi...the way you say that..."

"So what's her name?" Aoko asked again, peering at the small kitten that suddenly seemed to realize that there was someone there to take care of it and started to make loud mewling noises.

"Ah..." Kaito hesitated before putting his right hand next to his left as the kitten began to move around. "Well, I thought of a name, but--"

"Getting superstitious, Kuroba Kaito?" Akako questioned with a knowing look.

Defensive, Kaito said, "Of course not! But it's a French name and you guys will all say it sounds weird--well, maybe not _Hakuba_ but--"

Aoko sighed. "Just spit it out."

"...Raymonde," he muttered before blinking at the looks he was given. "It's a perfectly good name--!"

Keiko frowned thoughtfully. "Rei...mon...do?"

"Raymonde," Kaito corrected with a small pout.

Saguru was frowning also but for a different reason. "Kuroba...I think you should have at least enough sense to understand the superstition of naming a ship after one that has already met a disastrous end--"

"This," Kaito said, pointing to he mewling kitten, "is a cat. Not a ship. And anyway, it's a good name!"

"Not for Lupin's lover, it wasn't," the detective said grimly.

"First of all, otaku, she was his _wife_. And second of all, she was killed because Holmes shoots at thieves rather than trying to catch them. It had nothing to do with her name."

"What are you two arguing about?" Aoko asked with some confusion.

Saguru continued to frown at Kaito who was pointedly not paying the Brit anymore attention. "Well, just as there are things for detective enthusiasts in the form of stories of Sherlock Holmes, there are things for the fans of anti-heroes in the form of Arsène Lupin, a gentleman thief from the early 1900s."

"Like Kaitou Kid!" Keiko said with a gasp.

Saguru looked to the two curious girls with a smile. "Almost. Kid is sometimes called the 'Heisei Lupin,' but, in fact, the two of them have a couple of key differences. For one thing, Kid always gives back what he steals--for the most part. Lupin, however, stole for material gain and to embarrass his foes." He paused for a moment before shrugging. "The other difference is that Lupin was widely known to be a womanizer. He had several lovers and probably only married four times. Kid, though he does charm the ladies and woo them in order to distract, has never given the impression that he has a love interest."

Aoko made a derisive noise. "I don't doubt that. What rightful woman would want to be around a man like him?"

"A-Aoko-chan..." Keiko objected quietly.

"So what's this about that woman?" Aoko questioned, looking out of the corner of her eyes to watch her childhood friend try to quiet the kitten. "She was Lupin's wife?"

"Well, Lupin did care for her more than he cared for any other woman, so they say," Saguru answered, crossing his arms and appearing thoughtful. "He'd been a famous thief on the run with hundreds of aliases for about a decade, but when he met Raymonde, he decided to quit his life of crime and settle down, becoming a normal and maybe helpful citizen of society."

Both the girls were silent.

"So you mean..." Aoko started hesitantly, "he would have given back all of the things he stole?"

"Most likely not," was the immediate answer, "but Lupin was already fairly generous with the money he took. So it would have probably been the same but wihtout adding illegal prizes. But it hardly matters what he would have done. He never had his time with Raymonde as he wished it."

"What do you mean?" Keiko asked with wide eyes.

"She was killed." Everyone looked to Kaito who kept his eyes on the small kitten that was attempting to nurse from his right pinky finger. "Lupin had thought he managed to get out of the spotlight by faking his and Raymonde's death before marrying her under a different identity--she never even knew that she'd married the infamous Arsène Lupin--but Holmes and others found him with Raymonde. Holmes captured Raymonde and ended up telling her the truth about her husband just before Lupin fired a shot at the detective. In retaliated, Sherlock Holmes fired back..."

"He didn't!" Keiko cried in disbelief.

Saguru frowned again. "Most Holmes fans agree that Maurice Leblanc, the author of the Lupin series, portrayed Holmes poorly with that story. Still it is a tragedy to the Lupin fans and is the reason they tend to have a disliking for Sherlock Holmes."

"Well, it was his own fault."

Even Kaito looked up to stare at Aoko then.

The teenaged girl put her hands on her hips, eyes narrowed. "For one thing, he never told her the truth and because of that, she couldn't have made the right choice and say no when he proposed. For another, Lupin fired the first shot and Holmes was probably aiming for Lupin the whole time. So it's his fault Raymonde died."

A long silence followed her statement.

Kaito was the first to break it--with a bright-sounding laugh.

"What's so funny?" Aoko demanded, glaring at her childhood friend.

"S-sorry!" he choked out before he managed to calm himself down. "But by saying that, you've probably revealed the reason why Kaitou Kid isn't known for having lovers."

"And what reason would that be?" Saguru asked in a manner that suggested that he already knew the answer.

"Superstition!" Kaito declared cheerily before lifting his hand with the kitten sitting atop it. "But since iI'm/i not at all like Kaitou Kid, I'll name my cat Raymonde and dare Fate to do something about it. Like I said, it's a nice name and it makes people like you guys get all serious about stories written ages ago."

He snickered at the latter reason.

Aoko clenched her fists. "Idiot! You mean we've stood around talking about a dumb thief just to amuse you!"

"Yep!" was the shameless response.

Keiko restrained her friend, saying pleadingly, "Don't chase Kuroba-kun when he's got the kitten, Aoko-chan!"

Saguru sighed at it all before giving a light smirk. "So you're really not superstitious outside of performances."

"Not a bit," Kaito replied before looking at his watch. "Ah...it's getting late. I should probably get home and tell Mom about Raymonde..."

"Is it really so late?" Keiko asked.

"Yeah, because we wasted time talking about useless _fiction_," Aoko snapped before pulling her friend along as she began to stomp out of the room. "Come on, Keiko-chan, we've been exposed to the otaku for too long."

Kaito sweatdropped. "Just who is an otaku?" he asked, following the two girls out. "Oi, Aoko, I'm not an otaku--!"

The witch smiled at the silence that came with the exit of the three teenagers. "So now we know."

The detective put a hand to his chin thoughtfully. "It appears so," he murmured.

Akako glanced over to him with a decidedly eerie expression. "Hopefully the Heisei Holmes won't repeat the same tragedy, ne?"

Saguru looked to her, puzzled. "It was just fiction, you know, Koizumi."

She merely smirked back at him and replied, "And bad luck is purely superstition."

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_Author's Notes:_ This little ditty was written back in 2006. I dunno why I never posted it here. I sort of really adore it. Mostly because even though I've never read the Lupin series, I was able to get **most** of the information correct. However, I should let it be noted here that, from what I've been told, Raymonde actually did, in fact, have knowledge of who Lupin was--c'mon the woman injured and then nursed him back to health and fell for him that way, how could she **not** know? But she did seem to have a bit of denial in who he really was--i.e. a criminal and a thief and an especially famous one at that. Whatever denial she could keep up was ultimately destroyed by a certain detective telling her everything point-blank and because he wouldn't let Lupin escape with his foster mother and Raymonde... well, the scenario mentioned in the fic occurs. It's very tragic really.

But as I said! Most of my information was given to me via my own research as well as comments whenever I posted this fic on LiveJournal. So there are mistakes! Just pretend you don't see them. :D

Hope you all enjoyed!


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